Mentawai Yacht Charters

Mentawai Resorts

Aileoita Yacht Charter :: OVERVIEW

Pronounced “aye low ita” the word is similar in meaning to “aloha” in Hawaiian: Whenever the native Mentawai people meet each other – or are departing – they say “aileotia.” Seventy feet long with a roomy, 15-foot beam, Aileoita was purpose-built from the keel up in 2005 with one purpose in mind: transporting surfers of every skill level to the best waves in safety and comfort.

Over the past few years, Aileoita has served as a platform for many epic sessions – some of which have appeared in print or video. In July of 2010, Scott Bass interviewed Aileotia owner Jordan Heuer about the ups and downs of operating a surf travel company in the Mentawai, and Heuer was also featured in a story on the “Indo Swell of the Decade.” Most famously, Ozzie Wright’s 18-second barrel at Nokandui was filmed from Aileotia.

On the outside, Aileoita is rigged and ready to get surfers to wherever is good, get them into the tender, into the lineup and back in safety. Inside and below, Aileoita is outfitted with all the modern conveniences: full air conditioning, liquid crystal TV, Ipod-accommodating sound system connected to indoor and outdoor speakers.

A purpose-built surf charter yacht doesn’t get to far without a purposeful crew, and the Aileoita is propelled, staffed and fed by six guys, all of them trained by experienced Indo surf tour guide Jordan Heuer: Hendra is the captain, aided by a mechanic, two deck hands, photographer and someone who is second only to the captain on a surf charter yacht: The chef, Dodi.

Aileoita’s built in surf photographer, Argentinean Sebastian Imizcoz, is on board and ready to record the highlights of all the guests with cutting edge still and video equipment: Canon 7 D, 40 D and 300 D . Sebastian shoots anywhere from 3,000 to 8,000 images on a typical trip, then edits them down to the cream and saves them into two photo CDs for each guest.